Oxygen GVX1 : Time to replace ??

[Kwad Guy]

I have several HP XU800 workstations with Oxygen GVX1 video cards. At one time, the GVX1 was considered a very good rendering card...It was never a gamer's card, for sure, but very good for solid rendering and static display...Good OpenGL support...

Well, I dunno, those cards are getting a bit long in the tooth, so last week I tried to replace it with a cheapo GeForce 4 MX420 video card. (Yeah, yeah, I know the MX420 is a bogus sheep in wolf's clothing). I couldn't get that video card to work--don't know if it's the card or the machine, but after enough time wasted, I gave up and put the GVX1 back in...

So my question: Is the GVX1 still considered a reasonable contender for someone who isn't much of a gamer (the only games that get played on any of my GVX1 machines are little kid's games my daughter plays)? Or is it hopelessly out of date? Note that I'm not interested in spending hundreds for one of the Oxygen successor cards or equivalents, which are surely better. I'm really asking if it makes sense to replace the card with a cheap (<$100) mainstream card at this point...

Oh, and one more comment. The original Oxygen GVX1 cards in my Kayaks were pretty long, and had two fans mounted on them. Bad design--over time the fans started to make LOTS of noise. I complained to HP and under warranty (a few months ago) they replaced all of them with what appears to be a later revision of the GVX1 that has heatsinks on the card but no fans. The card is much shorter as well, with fewer chips...I assume this is just a redesign of the same card, although I can't be sure...Anyone know about this?

Kwad

 

[Kwad Guy]

Anyone?

 

[BenSkywalker]

What exactly are you using the Kayak for? Maya? ProE? CAD? Something else?

Which model was the XU800? Been a long time since I looked at any of the HP workstations. You may be better off speding some money elsewhere in your system depending on what you are doing and what you are looking for. In some cases the GF4Ti level boards may be a much better option for you, but it really depends on what you are doing.

 

[Kwad Guy]

Most of the modelling I do, actually is molecular modelling (rotating representations of molecules in real time)...The card is good enough for that...The card is a bit glitchy on other software, though, such as PowerDVD...

The HP XU800 is a i840 based machine (dual processors, rambus, 2x933Mhz PIII). Getting older now, but really stable and feels pretty fast still. (I have 2.4Ghz machines around too, so that isn't the issue).

Kwad

 

[BenSkywalker]

I'm not familiar with scientific modeling applications so I am a bit loathe to offer any reccomendations without disclaimer. I'm assuming that it utilizes a fairly standard OpenGL rendering engine, and my comments are based on as much.

Looking at boards in the ~$100 range a GF4 Ti4200(one of the BB specials) with the software based psuedo Quadro hack may be something that would serve you well. It will likely perform better then the GVX1 and should clear up issues with DVD playback software(although I would reccomend using the 30.xx series drivers unless the board you pick up either lacks TV out or has a Macrovision supporting TV out chip on board). I'm not sure that it would be worth it to you however. I would reccomend checking 3DLabs website for updated drivers if you haven't already to see if that would clear up your issues, moving to a Ti4200 likely wouldn't offer you a stellar speedup unless the app you were using was vertex limited and its rendering engine supported the dedicated T&L on the GF4. Also, you mentioned that you had problems getting a GF4MX to work, what were the problems exactly? For gamers rigs it is usual to reccomend a format/reinstall of Windows to properly excise all traces of other video cards but that likely isn't a reasonable or viable option for a workstation.

More then likely you are better off staying with the board you have. If you really want to upgrade, you can give the Ti4200 a try and go with the SoftQuadro hack to enable the pro OGL based functions of the board(though it won't match up with a comparable Quadro, it can sort out some issues the consumer part has by default).